oh the tragedy, captured as mine
by smearingstars
Summary: / … his brilliant colored eyes catches the sight of a paralyzed Annie Cresta with her wide green eyes—the color of the calm seas and the beautiful, cool coconut trees swaying on the sandy beaches,—glossed with tears and trembling with fear. / taken place around the seventieth hunger games and a few years after. two-shot.
1. part one

**disclaimer**: _I don't own these perfect tragic characters or the book series they're from. If I did they would've got their happy ending! & the book might be focused more on them. Okay?  
_**notes:** _alright, I'm not dead, firstly, and I'm sorry but I have a major writer's block for __drowning in ashes__. . .  
this is a two-shot, and it's the first part out of the two . . . the characters might be or seem ooc, because I'm not good at capturing these flawless characters, so bear with me. enjoy!_

* * *

**oh the tragedy, captured as mine**

**.**

**i,**

**.**

She remembers. She remembers everything.

She remembers the warm waters of her home in district 4. She remembers the feel of the evening sea breeze blow against her hair, and the smell of seafood wafting around the dinner table. She remembers the ocean, the fish, the knots, the sand, the seashells, and the swim. She remembers her parents, and the rest of her family, who loved her _oh_ so much. She remembers her friends. She remembers playing, laughing, and learning with them. She remembers the joy, the simplicity, and the hardships. And she remembers how the world came crashing down, how a sudden weight fell on her shoulders, and how she stumbled up the steps, all due to a soft echoing of her name like the waves calling her to the rough waters, to claim her as theirs.

She remembers the sympathy, the fear, and the dread aching in her bones, in the souls of her fellow friends and families, as she climbs up the steps onto the stage after being reaped. She remembers _his _face, her companion beside her. He was the other tribute sent along to die with her. The one bound to perish with her in the 70th Hunger Games. She remembers his name, but she doesn't want to. It _**haunts **_her to remember.

She remembers saying goodbye to her home.

She remembers meeting their mentor, the _oh_ so infamous Finnick Odair. She hears all sorts of syndical stuff about the bronze haired beauty standing right in front of her, but she never cared.

She remembers his faith in them, in her. She remembers his tricks. She remembers herself trying. She remembers the training. She remembers herself failing. She remembers avoiding her mentor and her friend. She remembers evading the hours of crisis — the daylight — the times for training. She remembers hiding from it all.

She remembers the hope flickering in his vibrant shaded sea-green eyes, and she remembers his words. His last words spoken to her and to the other tribute, before they're both leaving another home — it's some of the last words she hears before she's in the arena. "Win or die, I'll always remember you." he says, quietly more to himself than to them.

"Good luck, doll face." She remembers him saying to her then, as if she's entering a beauty contest and he's waiting for her victory knowingly, charming her, as if he's going to see her again. He gives her that flirtatious smile, and turns away to the other tribute muttering some encouraging words to him.

And then she's sent off into the games. Her feelings in a turmoil, and she remembers feeling more lost than ever (and more unprepared).

She remembers a blur of events. But more vividly than ever, she remembers the swing, and _his_ head, and the blood. The blood of her only friend in this _goddamned_ place, the only person she knows, staring up at the sky,** terrified**.

She remembers the eyes of the murderer, and the air vanishing from her lungs, and her voice shattering into shards as she lets out an inaudible airy scream. The murderer never sees her though, she recalls. The stupid tribute that _killed him_ was too busy staring at their bloodstained sword in pride, not noticing her at all until —  
She remembers running, and hiding, followed by the sound of a cannon firing and her ears and eyes were closed and covered, with a small rumbling and tickling starting from the back of her throat. She recognizes that as her own laughter.

She also remembers that after a while, there was a flood and a shriek from several others— from murderers not far from strangling her, and herself swimming. She remembers a cannon firing, and suddenly waking up in a depressing white room, surrounded by men in white lab coats.

She remembers Finnick Odair, looking up at her with pity. He tells her she's home and safe in the hospital of district 4 — but she doesn't feel safe at all. Standing beside Finnick, she remembers the old lady, Mags, her mouth curving into a sad friendly smile directed at her. This gesture from Mags encourages some warmth and hope into her cold puzzling world.

She remembers hiccuping back sobs, and her tear stained cheeks, when she takes a trip home to find her house wrecked and burnt to ashes, along with the scent of the sea mixed with the unmistakable odor of decomposing bodies, lurking underneath all the mess. She remembers punching Finnick away from restraining her and rushing through the burnt hut, and hugging the remains of her dead family. And that's when flashes of the arena hits her, the memories of the beheading of her fellow tribute rushes through her mind, and she remembers squeezing her eyes shut, and dropping the dead bodies into her lap, covering her ears, while she screams out sobs, **_no,no,no_**!

She remembers Finnick's callous hands grabbing her, and his arms wrapping around her shaking frame, whisking her away while he whispers soothing things in her ears to calm her down. She never opens her eyes once.

She remembers the gush of wind from the cool air in the hospital. Finnick's arms are off of her by then, as she lies silently on the bed, her eyes shut tight. She remembers Finnick still murmuring gently against her earlobe. She remembers his stories about the turtles and fishes underneath the ocean, and the moon and tides bringing the ships back to shore, and the lighthouse scouting out for the lost ones, and saving them before danger arrives. She remembers wishing for her own lighthouse.

And then it's all strange, and different. She remembers it was not her medication. She remembers spacing out for a while. Her dreams and nightmares were blurring in with reality. Her past memories were blurring in with the present. She's confused. But she's not just confused, but she's something much more than that; she's traumatized.

**_-;_**

This was not supposed to happen.

Finnick Odair would have never guessed that out of **all** the tributes in the 70th Hunger Games that Annie Cresta would win. He mentored her, or at least tried to, and she just spat it back right in his face, hiding and running from him, never showing up much for her training, and when she does she trains for a little bit, and disappears from the training center.

The first few weeks he has tried to chase the young, innocent looking, dark-haired girl, as if it was a game of hide and seek, but he could never find her in the small compartment. During dinner, he would try to seduce her, flirting with the pretty young maiden to get her to practice her skills (that he doesn't know of), so that there might be a chance for her to win, for his small burden to be lifted off his shoulders if she dies. Despite his charms, she always ignored him, and went straight to talking to everyone else about how much she missed the waters, and the seas of district 4. She confided in him sometimes with her thoughts, when there's no one else there for her to talk to, but still, she never really trained with him for the games at all.

Finnick finally decides to prep her in different yet simple ways. He'd wake her up in the mornings, and take one of her things from her room that was from her home — like a necklace made of seashells — and he'd run fast evoking her to chase him. That was how he trained her speed.

During breakfast and dinner, ( — Annie usually skipped lunch since that was in between the training — ) he'd criticize her eating etiquette, and on how she cuts her meat, or slices the bread, and gives her tips on how to use the utensils sharply, stabbing the meat hard, or slicing the bread evenly and thoroughly through, but doing it quickly at the same time (since Finnick would usually yell at Annie to hurry up and hand him the bread, and she'd give a him a glare, while the other tribute sitting with them bursts out in laughter at the exchange). He heard her curse him for his impatience, causing a smirk to grace his lips, as he replies with a witty remark. This was one of the ways he could prepare her to kill, or at least wound and hunt a little bit (— and it was also a course for him to make her tough, and an excuse for him to tease her).

He also causes her to slam her fist onto the table a lot, when he infuriates her to no end, and once it was so bad, she broke the table. That was how she would gain some strength.

However, it wasn't enough, he knew. Time was drawing near, and she wasn't ready compared to his other male tribute.

The guilt began to grow, while he watched the Hunger Games start to air on the screen, only caring about his two attractive pair of tributes, rooting for them to win, and hoping that they wouldn't have to deal with what he had to deal with after the games.

He began to try to earn them some sponsors, in the ways that he could. After everything, people stopped helping him — because, really, what did these two tributes have to offer them? — which left Finnick only one last resort to go to and he dreaded it, but there was no other choice but to do it. He had to sell his body to those he despised, which was the Capitol.  
It has been so long since he's done this tactic, but now there was no other option to earn his tributes these sponsors.

Halfway through the games, people didn't want him anymore, so he had nothing left to do to help his tributes. He felt useless, and was drenched in his own guilt and sorrow, and was also very much disgusted with himself and those in the Capitol. He wasn't thinking straight. He wanted to barge into the Capitol and flood the place, sinking everything, and demanding President Snow to stop the Hunger Games, or else he'll drown the old man. But he couldn't and wouldn't, because he knew that was a long shot, and was impossible. So he cried in fury, and worthlessness, and mourned for all the ones who **died** for him, and mourned for his tributes who were **going to die**, and the ones he'll have to train in the** future**. Mags, his old mentor, and the closest thing he has to family left, came into his house to find a weeping Finnick, and tried to console him that night.

He continued to watch the games from his sofa, in his house. A sharp pain tugs at his gut when he watches the male tribute — the one from district 4 — the one he has trained gets his head decapitated by a sword. He refrains from screaming at his flat screen TV, screaming at the world, and cussing out at Snow, when his brilliant colored eyes catches the sight of a paralyzed Annie Cresta, the other tribute he recognizes on his screen, with her wide green eyes — the color of the calm seas and the beautiful, cool coconut trees swaying on the sandy beaches, — glossed with tears and trembling with fear. She was standing near the shrubs in the background, witnessing the death of her friend right before her eyes.

Finnick swears silently to himself when he notices the stability in poor little Annie shatter, pain and fear consuming her, as she begins to run, panicking, and running like she's being chased by a predator. She scurries away like a fish does when it is being fished by people. It reminds him of how frustrated he was when he was younger during the times he tried to fish. She reminded him of those fish, of the ones he could never catch.

**.**


	2. part two

**disclaimer**: _I don't own district four, or the beautiful (sort of mysterious) love story of Finnick Odair and Annie Cresta, and their relations with Mags or anyone.  
_**notes:** _this is the last part, part two out of two. this turned out way different than I expected it to, and very I think different from the first part of this two-shot. and I think I screwed up the ending, and warning! Annie and Finnick might be kind of ooc, and I'm so sorry about that if they are... also, did you hear? they're casting actors for Finnick right now in the Catching Fire movie, and I hope Finnick will turn out right. (; oh yeah, hope you adore this part, and feel free to correct any errors I might've made._

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**oh the tragedy, captured as mine**

**.**

**ii,**

**.**

He runs to her side, and scoops her up in his arms. His head drops slightly, looking down at her face, and winces inwardly at what he sees. It's his new way of coping, instead of cursing; he winces when his dismay is reflected towards her, replacing the bad habit, so he wouldn't startle the little girl in his arms.

He needed to stop calling her that. _The little girl_. It wasn't right. She was a champion, a survivor, the victor of the games. Despite the rumors of a flaw in the games, she was the winner. It was made and announced once the flood was set off, and everyone drowned — except for her, and that cannot be fixed or reversed.

His green irises swirl together with the other lighter shades in concern, as he stares at a watery wide eyed Annie Cresta, glancing up right at him, her dark emeralds stormy and bloodshot, rendering him speechless. It takes him a moment to realize that she's not looking at him, but up at the ceiling of the small hospital when he drops her securely onto her bed.

Her eyes remain unmoving, and he waves his hand over to close them, and jumps when he feels skin, a warm, feverish touch linger onto his hand. His hand immediately flies to his side, and he stares at the poor little mad girl with a puzzled curiosity.

"Finnick," she murmurs raspily, her gaze directing their attention to him, as if noticing him for the first time. "I'm sorry…"

Finnick Odair watches numbly, standing as rigid as ever, while he feels his throat go dry. He's muddled with thoughts, some shocked, and some relieved, and some with bemusement, and his eyebrows furrow together asking her a silent; _**why**__?_

She's used to his presence by now, and recalls his every expression perfectly. She answers him sincerely and starts to fiddle with the sheets. "For leaving this stupid lonely place, when I shouldn't have, and scaring you and everyone…I just wanted some air, and," her voice falters, muttering softly like she was ashamed, "I wanted an adventure."

He barely heard the last of her words, and a flash of anger courses through his veins when he hears it, but a small smile fends it off. "Annie…"

"No, Finnick. I-I, I mean this is the part where you're supposed to be all furious and say I'm in big trouble or something, and that's my cue to ignore your lecture and fall asleep," Annie supplies for him.

This causes his smile to grow bigger, with him chuckling a bit, causing Annie to sit up looking at him, all scandalized. "You weren't supposed to laugh at that either," she pouts, folding her arms together.

She seriously does not know the effect that she has on him, Finnick thinks to himself. It's because of her, that he rushes to the hospital everyday when he gets off that flight from the stupid Capitol after some gross affair with one of the citizens, or from an extravagant appointment with Snow. She's either sleeping, or in a daze when he visits her, and probably never really acknowledges his existence beside her. But that's okay, Finnick reassures himself every day. It's enough to see her safe and alive, worth every penny to see her in serenity away from her nightmares, and just to see her pretty face, assures him that she is his saving grace, his hope to continue to live.

He cares about her deeply. Once he gets off from his job, and arrives at the small district 4 hospital. He always asks the nurse about Annie, if she received the medication she needs, what she ate, and how she behaved while he was gone.

He panicked a few hours earlier to find Annie missing from her bed, and the nurses frantically searching for her. Finnick ran outside of the infirmary, onto the calm shores of the beach to look for Annie. She wasn't sitting on the sand, or playing in the water, or anywhere in sight. He feels distraught, and scurries to the small shacks set up around the beach, asking nervously about the sightings of a precious Annie Cresta.

No one knows, shrugging, and expresses their pity and sympathy to him, turning away from the bronze haired legend to get back to their work. He searches for the mad girl, who carries his heart unknowingly with her, looking for her around the schools, the homes, and the stores of district 4. He wipes the sweat off his forehead, and he chokes on air once he spots his Annie lying on the empty docks, clear of fishermen and boats.

"ANNIE!" He screams, running hysterically towards the petite frame laying down flat on the brown planks of wood. He pulls her up to his chest, embracing her into a tight hug, clutching her protectively, his arms wrapped firmly against her back. He grabs her shoulders, shaking her out of whatever daze she is in, but she doesn't respond, just idly stares up at the sky, her skin all hot and feverish.

He panics. Tears begin to coat his eyes, and he shifts her body, propping her into a horizontal, sleeping, flat-on-the back-like position against his strong arms. He stands up, lifting her up bridal style, and treads towards the hospital, carefully carrying her.

Around this moment was when he realizes he's fallen for her. Well, actually, Finnick has realized all along, just never admitted it out bluntly to himself or anyone else until now. He, Finnick Odair is straight up in love with Annie Cresta. He loves her, and her gorgeous innocent doll-like face, her superfluous flaws, her madness, her crazy spasms, her past, and her** beautiful **personality. She crept up on him like the summer night breeze blowing through his hair. She crept up on him like the tide washing up against the shore, dragging in some sand with it into the sea, and leaving some behind.

And now, with her sane personality intact, he can't help but smile at everything she's saying.

"Sorry, doll face," he smirks, "but you're just so funny."

"Am I? Am I really?" she challenges him, an eyebrow raised playfully. She grins at him amusedly, filled with pride and a tease, "Or is this just another one of your ways to _seduce _me? Don't think I forgot about the trainings, almighty Finnick Odair. Oh yeah, I remember, and your charms don't **work **on me."

He pretends to be offended, looking shock and stricken, his hand falling dramatically over his heart, like it was just wounded there. "You don't know what you're missing," he says jokingly, gesturing towards his face and his body. "Missing out on this charming face and all... Mark my words, Annie Cresta, you'll be sorry!"

_**-;**_

Another whole year goes by, and it's Annie's twentieth birthday.

She remembers Finnick humming melodiously out into the finest seas, where the wind is nice but also strong, blowing the sails on the mast of the ship steadily, while the waves are calm, rocking and churning the vast boat slowly. He's steering the ship, spinning the wooden wheel recklessly, while continuing humming the tune of his favorite shanty.

She chimes in, humming along with him, the familiar ballad of the fishermen in district 4, and her forest colored green eyes twinkle at the sight of Finnick in a tricorne hat, spinning the helm, and she can't help but think he oddly looks like a pirate.

She ruins the music, once she runs toward the edge of the yacht, and puts her hand in the water, feeling the cool liquid surpass her skin, and she splashes some water, startled when a seagull soars over, perching on the rim of the boat a few inches beside her.

Finnick jerks his head towards Annie worryingly, watching as Annie is about to fall backwards onto her back. Finnick rushes to her side, not quick enough to catch her, but she stares up at him, unfazed and bubbling with laughter.

She stands up, brushing through her shorts, and floral top, beaming brightly at Finnick, whose face is still somewhat stoic and mostly alarmed, unaware of his hat lying crookedly on the crown of his bronze head.

She remembers fixing it for him and his green eyes burningly gazes at her intensely and fondly with a mix of desire. She tries to ignore his expression, and brightens when his hat is fixed. "There! You're a pirate again."

"A pirate?" he asks her, and she shrugs in reply pointing at his hat.

She remembers a silence falling over him, while his eyes narrow absently, calculating. A sheepish smile graces his lips then, and parts to say, "If I'm a pirate, would you be my first mate, Annie Cresta?"

Annie just stares at him, and contemplates his offer. "I would love to, but not today. I'm turning twenty today, if you forgot, and don't think you're fooling anyone that you're a pirate without the accent."

Finnick gives her a goofy grin, and the face of a great idea. "No, of course I wouldn't forget about it be yer birthday, luv. Aye, yer the captain of this grand ship!"

"Captain?" Annie inquires, quirking an eyebrow, with a small smirk forming.

"Aye, aye Cap'n!"

She laughs, and takes off the tiara made of seashells and flowers nesting on her hair, and lays it gently onto the table in the middle of the ship. "If I'm Captain," she says, an octave curving up towards the end of her phrase, "Then I need a hat, suitable for a captain."

Finnick scrambles towards the staircase, climbing down the stairs, and returns with a pearly white peaked cap, round and cylindrical with a visor extended out like a bird's beak in the front.

"Perfect," Annie exclaims, putting the captain hat on her head. "How do I look?"

"Absolutely stunning," Finnick answers, and she looks at him, confusedly, but smiles softly at his sentiment.

"Uh, want a sugar cube?" he says instead, looking distractedly away from her, preventing the awkward tension to be formed.

Annie nods, and he hands her a napkin full of sugar cubes. She plops one in her mouth, and walks towards him, to plop one in his mouth too.

He chews, smiling at her, while she returns the notion. She remembers tasting the sugar melt in her mouth, sweetness and a tint of a fresh icy taste of lime swirl with the sweetness, making the cube taste awfully sweet with a dash of sour.

Finnick always knew how to make his food taste unique but also delicious at the same time, she remembers. She thinks he'd make a great cook, or more like a really attractive professional chef, and perhaps an amazing husband, but quickly dismisses the idea, realizing how weird that would be.

Annie redirects her gaze back to Finnick, whose pirate hat is lying on the floor now, and decides at that exact moment to take his shirt off. She yells at him protesting, and he gives her a breathtaking million dollar grin that could make all the girls in Panem swoon, teasing her provocatively. "Find this distracting, sweetheart? Do you like what you see?"

Annie scoffs at his comment, "You're not going to woo me anytime soon, Finnick. Maybe in your dreams, but you have to realize that _this_ is **reality**." She laughs at her own reply, realizing the irony of the words she'd spoken. The mad girl is telling her caretaker to wake up from his delusional fantasies, when she has been trying to do the same over the past few years. It really is ironic, she thinks to herself.

Finnick laughs as well, not fazed by the retort or the ironic meaning hidden underneath it at all. He just throws his hands up in surrender, and takes a step backwards, tumbling into the water.

Annie yelps in surprise, running towards the edge of the yacht to find Finnick. Her heart lurches in a frenzy, afraid of the thought of Finnick drowning, and relief washes over once Finnick pokes his head up from the water, grinning madly.

"Did I scare you, little Annie?"

Annie just shoots him a glare, turning away from him. "That was mean."

"Aw, you really cared about me, didn't you?" He badgers, diving down underneath the surface of the sea, and jumps back up catching the rim of the ship with his best hand.

"Aw, come on Annie, don't be angry with me. It's your birthday!" He whines, while climbing up back onto the ship, and wraps his arms around the birthday girl, causing her to elbow him in the chest.

"You're wet," she says, as she shifts her head to face him. There's a mischievous gleam in his eyes, she notes, and he gives her that knowing smirk, adding a phrase to hers. "And you're going to be soaked."

Before she can open her mouth to speak, he grabs her, hugging her, while her peaked cap is flung beside Finnick's three cornered hat, and they both dunk into the ocean together. He's holding her tightly so that she can't escape his clutches, while she stubbornly squirms in his embrace. Sea water squirts out from her mouth, when she glances up at Finnick in a playful rage, and he returns her glance with a big smile. He's finally caught her, he thinks. The unattainable, Annie Cresta, the one who he could never catch, is now _his_, within his grasp, and he can't help but to feel **victorious**.

Annie wants to be free, she remembers. She wraps her arms around Finnick's neck, and moves her face closer to his. She can feel his breath grow heavy and ragged, his eyes locked on hers, and she moves a hand away from his neck, and splashes his neck, surprising him. An arm falls away from her back, to return the favor, ready to splash her, but Annie moves fast. She takes this chance to escape and swims away from Finnick's safe and bulky arms.

That's when it hits her, she remembers. She remembers the flood, a rush to her skull, and she screams. She finds herself in the arena again. A deafening cry reverberates against her head, and the lingering image of her friend, the district 4 tribute's head chopped off from his own body. She starts to sob, and cover her ears. She feels herself submerging, the water claiming her, while she slowly sinks down, giving into the sea.

"No!" Annie hears Finnick yell, and his arms perform strokes, a front crawl, as he makes his way towards her. His arm finds her small frame, and he leads them back onto the ship.

Her eyes are closed, when he lays her onto the main deck of the ship. "No," he mutters to himself, as he feels Annie's heartbeat slacken.

She's unconscious, and Finnick grows angry and distraught at his actions for bringing her into the water. It's his fault he brought this weight on her, and it was her birthday too. He felt that Annie was ready for a swim, but he never expected one of her spasms to occur. He regrets everything and brings his fist to her chest, gently beating it for water to spurt out from her mouth.

Nothing comes, and Finnick becomes worried. He leans down toward her pretty face, and drops his lips to hers.

Her eyes flutter open, and his lips are a centimeter away from hers, almost touching. She gasps, and tries to stay down, before their lips accidentally meet.

Finnick backs away from Annie and smiles as she regains her consciousness. "I'm so sorry, Annie," he tells her, his eyes all wide, broody and serious.

He has the look of a sad lost puppy, Annie recalls, and she blinks rapidly to be certain of her surroundings. "It's okay," she reassures him, sitting up and wrapping her arms around him, "It is okay. I'm okay, and you're okay. That's all that matters."

**.**

She's back home with Finnick in district 4, where a sunset falls over the skies. The pretty orange of the sun, combined with the pink and purple colors in the air meets the thin line of the horizon where the water takes over, brings a warm happiness to Annie. She dances among the people who continue to celebrate her twentieth birthday with her.

Joy hums in the air, and she feels like the most special person in the world. She searches the crowd for Finnick, or Mags but she sees no one in sight. Instead, she hears a faint song in the distance, and it grows louder as everyone joins in to sing it.

The small flickering flame of candles makes its presence noticeable to her, when she sees the gorgeous birthday cake unveil in front of her eyes. It's big and pretty representing her favorite places and things in district 4, the cake having a majority of five layers. The cake is adorned with blue squiggly lines, on each layer, which she suspects symbolizes the waves in the ocean, and a pink oyster with a pearl inside is shown on the first, upper top layer, while the second layer is full of boats and ships. The third layer has fishermen figurines molded out of milk chocolate sitting there, while their fishing sticks and strings are made out of wafers, dangling down to the fifth layer where fish is painted on there. '_Happy Birthday Annie!_' is written in a swirly script in a purplish blue icing, on the left side of the oyster, where five pastel colored candles border the edge of the cake.

Finnick's standing in front of her too, with Mags, both of them singing 'Happy Birthday' to her, and setting the cake onto the small stand behind the crowd of people who were surrounding her moments ago. Finnick runs to her side, while Mags stands beside the cake, while she blows out the candles.

Mags begin to cut slices of the cake, giving everyone a piece. Finnick hands Annie a small box, with a fancy cornflower blue bow woven on it, and she tugs gently at the string. She holds onto the lace, and lifts the top of the box, to find a whole lot of fibred ropes in it, and she gives Finnick a '_what is this?_' kind of look, and he returns it with a disarming smile.

She grabs the lock of rope, and finds a silver necklace on the bottom, with a ring of two dolphins embedded onto the small band along with three blue shiny marquise cut zirconium rhinestones in the middle, between the two animals, and a pair of clear white diamonds, one above the dolphins, and one below them on both sides, dangling from the chain. There were words engraved inside the ring, that Annie deciphered as, _Forever the lovely Annie Odair_.

She raised an eyebrow at that, "Annie Odair? Are you trying to propose or—"

"I'm about to ask you if you would like to be my girlfriend." Finnick interjects. "And it's not a joke," he adds.

She smiles brightly; glad that everyone's attention is on the cake, and no longer on her. "Sure," she agrees, and Finnick takes this time to sweep a lock of her long dark hair onto her shoulder, and fastens the necklace around her pale slender neck. While he clasps it together, Annie starts to tie knots with the ropes he gave her, and she speaks while she feels his hand around the cord of nerves behind her neck. "It's the least I could do, after everything I put you through…and thanks Finnick, for this amazing birthday, and taking care of me. I know I can be tough to handle at times…"

"Yeah, you sure are tough to handle." Finnick admits, agreeing with her, moving his hands away from her skin, scratching the back of his head. This earns him a punch on the shoulder, and he laughs halfheartedly. "Ouch, that hurt! Do I get a kiss for that booboo?"

She giggles at this, "Gosh, you're so cheeky!"

"And handsome," Finnick adds, smirking.

"And arrogant, and such a flirt," Annie tells him.

"Hey! I'm only a flirt because of you! It's not my fault you're so vivacious. You and your looks just call to my soul, and cause me to try to seduce you. That's all," he fires back, and Annie narrows her eyes at him.

"You're serious?"

"I mean every word, Annie Cresta. I'm in love with you, and even your tragedies. Your tragedies are mine, and everything, and I would never lie to you."

"And you're also honest, and caring," Annie says, adding to the list.

"Yes, so, how about that kiss for this cheeky, handsome, arrogant, flirtatious, honest, and caring boyfriend of yours?"

She gives him a genuine smile and wraps her arms around his neck, and studies him, realizing that this is what she wants. And for once in her life she lets herself be willingly captured by this man before her, and enjoys it thoroughly. That's what she remembers.

**.**

( — Finnick is hers, and Annie is his.

His tragedy is enamored with her.

His heart is captured by her.

Her pain is captured by him.

And her heart belongs to him. — )

**.**


End file.
